Music of the Night
by kiwi pixie
Summary: Hermione learns something about Snape and she is now working on her project! bad summary WIP
1. Capo the beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story except the plot. Though in sixth grade I tried to convince my band teacher I owned Ode to Joy. (His response to that? "You're in sixth grade. All you have is an unnatural love of PBS and a snotty tissue." Oddly enough, he was my favorite teacher.)

A/N: The song he's playing is Prelude in D flat, Op.28 No.15: 'Raindrop' by Chopin. It is one of my favorite piano pieces. I am a trumpet player through and through, but this piece made me wish I was coordinated enough to play the piano. I wasn't planning on extending this story past the chapter but who knows. If you notice, I kind of avoid saying what the project is and that is pretty much because I don't know what it is. I shall see. Sorry in advance for the poor paragraphs. I edited as well as I could myself, I don't have a beta though so it's probably not correct. Any feedback would be much loved. PS: I'd just like to take this chance to say, I have THE coolest buddy icon. It has a pic of Hermione and it says 'Smart is Sexy' and I have another one that says 'Embrace Your Inner Hermione'. Awww yeah!

***

As Hermione walked down the long hallway to the dungeons, she was having second thoughts about her idea of her seventh year project focusing on potions. She knew she had done more research than most would think possible on a proposal, and that her idea was original, but all that was going through her head was the sneer and unsympathetic rejection she was sure she would receive from Professor Snape. It didn't help that the rest of Hogwarts had gone to bed hours ago leaving the school unnaturally quiet. The fact that the dungeons were poorly lit didn't surprise her in the least. Snape wasn't one to make his students feel welcome. 

Gradually she was pulled out of her thoughts to the first sound that she had heard for hours. It was the delicate music of a piano. A sound, though very much welcome, was one she hadn't heard since she joined the world of wizards and witches. Radios and CD players could not function in Hogwarts; it was a well-known fact. She had never _seen _a piano in the school, but she knew from past experiences, that was no reason to assume there wasn't one. For the life of her though, she couldn't figure out what it would be doing in Snape's dwelling area. Though she knew he was a more educated and sophisticated man than most of her peers gave him credit for, the piano just did not fit the persona she associated him with. Maybe the cello if she had to pick an instrument. Maybe it wasn't even him playing. It was possible that she was so worried that her fear took over.

Hermione decided to continue on, her project was more important than fitting her professors with the correct instrument or rationalizing the inner workings of her mind. As she neared the classroom the music changed pace. Before it was a light piece, but now it tugged at her stomach. She felt like her stomach was attempting to go through a portkey without the rest of her body. Hermione reached the doors to the classroom and knocked once. Not hearing a response, she knocked again, a bit louder this time. Still hearing no answer, she slowly pulled open the heavy doors. The room was dark and as far as she could tell, empty from the professor she sought out, but the piano music was much louder.

Her heartbeat quickened as the peace became more dramatic. She felt both the pains of the composer and the anonymous player. It made her heart ache. 

Hermione saw at the far end of the class a door that she didn't recall ever being there. It was slightly ajar and there was warm light pouring out of the room that it connected to. As she slowly approached the door the music seemed to be getting more and more heartfelt and clearly the volume increased. 

Clutching her massive pile of notes and scrolls, now nearly forgotten, she slipped through the door. She assumed she was now in Snape's private quarters. The coloring of the room was neither black, silver, or white much to her surprise, but a warm blue. There were enormous bookshelves covering all the walls that didn't hold a door, or fire place and each one was full of books. It reminded her a bit of the library in her favorite childhood movie, Beauty and the Beast. 

After a moment, her eyes rested on the source of her curiosity. There, in the middle of the room, was a beautiful black grand piano. Sitting at it was Snape with his back facing her. He was wearing a black robe that had been untied and hung loosely around him. His long black hair appeared to her, not repulsive, but sensual as it moved with his body to the music. He was clearly focused only on the stunning piece he was playing. 

Not wanting to disturb him, Hermione took a few steps to her left and slowly sunk her body into a large couch. The song had calmed down and sounded like it was nearly over. Though it was smoother, it was in no way less intense. As the song lazily dwindled to the end, Hermione slowly let out a deep breath she though must have been in her lungs since she stepped in the room. 

Suddenly she couldn't remember if she had told her professor that she wanted to talk to him and realized he might not appreciate his unexpected audience. Her fear quickly replaced the tranquility. Knowing that there was no graceful way out of the situation she had foolishly gotten herself into, she decided to take it like the Gryffindor she was. 

"That was marvelous sir." Hermione said quietly. "I didn't realize you played the piano." He spun around and for a moment Hermione was afraid he was going to throw something at her. Possibly the very large bench he had been sitting on a moment ago. 

"What are you doing here Granger?" He growled. "I don't believe we have class again until tomorrow. I understand your need to continually prove yourself as the most annoying girl in this school, but trust me. You need not confirm this with me. I have been convinced." For some reason his comment didn't come out as sarcastically as she was sure it was meant to sound. 

"I'm sorry professor. I wanted to talk to you about my project but then I came and you were playing and-" he cut her off with a roll of his eyes. "What was that you were playing sir?" She asked sounding a bit braver than she felt. A pained look shot through his eyes and was gone sooner than it appeared. 

"What was this brilliant idea you needed to talk to me about?" 

Though she wanted to know everything there was to know about the song, the rational part of her brain took over and she let out a frustrated sigh as she held her notes out not feeling generous enough to get up and hand them to him. He slowly walked over and snatched the notes from her hands. He returned to the piano bench and began reading.

----------

The Granger girl was brilliant. He had to admit it. On a nearly daily basis much to his dismay. As he finished reading the notes he looked back up at her. Her eyes were not looking down or away as he expected. Instead they were looking right into his as if saying 'I may be annoying but it looks like you're going to have to deal with it.'

"Nobody has ever wanted to study healing potions in this way before Miss Granger." He paused. "You do realize that you will have to devote all of your free time to your project. You won't be able to save it for the last second like the rest of the geniuses in this school." She sent him a glare nearly worth of Snape-on-a-bad-day-with-Longbottom-melting-his-chair. 

"I believe you have forgotten whom you are talking to Professor Snape." She carefully said.

"If only it were that simple." Snape muttered under his breath. In retrospect, this may have been the wrong thing to say. He saw her eyes narrow and she pushed herself off of the couch and quickly stood up.

"With all due respect, _Sir_," Hermione said with forced politeness. "I wish I could say the same. But I desperately want to do this project and I am willing to spend as much time as needed working on it. Even if that means working with you. You know as well as I do that this is a good idea and it is worthy of even your time."

Snape turned around without saying a word. He hadn't the energy to go through a battle of words. It was obvious she was going to do this project with or without his help and he might as well make sure she didn't blow herself up in the process of proving she had a brain. Not that that wasn't appealing on a certain level. He nodded his head. 

"Very well Miss Granger. I shall look through my books and see if there are any that can make this research a bit more complete. We won't be brewing for quite some time. This is by no stretch of the imagination an easy project. It may not even work."

"I know that Professor. I'm willing to take my chances. Do you think you could play one more piece before I leave?" Snape gave her what, on anyone else, might have been considered a grin and spun around dramatically. He slowly raised his right hand and with his pointer finger, plunked out a slightly off tempo Ode to Joy. He turned around to see Hermione rise with a small smile on her face. As she walked towards the door she slowly turned around.

"Thank you Professor Snape."

Maybe, just maybe, he thought, working with the girl wouldn't be a horrible as he had first assumed.


	2. Agitati

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter universe nor do I own any of the music I mention. My musical definitions are a combination of what my band teacher tells me, my knowledge, and these snazzy web-sites I found. http://www.pianoinstructors.com. and http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/musik/glossary.htm

Author Notes: As you can see, I decided to continue with the story. A HUGE thanks to all whom reviewed. I never understood the ravings of joyful writers until now. A special thanks to Anastasia for the idea incorporating a piece into each chapter. There isn't one here but I promise one for the next chapter. I will use more than Chopin. Don't worry. As rad as he is, there are so many others who are just as amazing. If you know of any pieces you think I should use, please tell me! Enjoy.

****

****

Agitati: Agitated

The next morning, Hermione woke to the giggles and shouts of the rest of her house. Being head girl was wonderful for many reasons, one being that she had her own room, but it also meant she was right in the middle of the Gryffindor wing. One never knew when her help would be needed.

"No need for an alarm clock in this school." She muttered bitterly as she pushed her cat off of her stomach. "Come on Crooks. I need to get dressed." 

The cat sniffed indignantly and in his attempt to stalk off the bed with grace and poise, tripped over his front paws and tumbled off the bed. Hearing Hermione's snort of laughter, he sprinted into her closet and promptly started chewing her only pair of Muggle jeans that hadn't had a potion spilled on them or hadn't been snatched away by some classmate with no connection to the non-wizarding world.

Hermione's grin faded away as she faced the mirror. Her hair had done anything but calm down over the years. If anything, it had developed a clear hatred for Hermione and expanded a bit more every year. She heard a slight coughing coming from in front of her and quickly grabbed her wand and pointed it at her mirror.

"ONE word from you, just one, and I promise you I will have no other choice but to harm you in ways you can't even dream of."

"But dear!" The mirror tried to protest. "If you only used a spell, or asked Lavender(the dear, she never has trouble with _her _hair. She is a natural beauty. She always looks like she stepped out of a Witches Weekly cover shoot! And the darling girl never shouts. Bless her soul) for help, I'm sure she'd fix it."

A deep Snape-like growl issued from the back of Hermione's throat and it took all of her might not to curse the mirror with an unforgivable. She thought it should be legal to use Avada Kedavra on a particularly troublesome mirror. On some days she thought that going to Azkaban might be worth it. At least nobody there would comment on her appearance or ask for her help on their homework.

Not hearing any noise coming from outside her door, Hermione realized she was late. She quickly got dressed, grabbed all of her class work, and as she ran out the door, pulled her hair back into a messy bun. Of course messy was the only choice she had, as the mirror had not so kindly pointed out a few days ago.

Once in the Great Hall, she quickly sat down across from Harry and Ron. Of course they were talking about Quidditch. Ron was gesturing excitedly with a piece of sausage that had been skewered onto his fork.

"Hi Hermione." Harry said quickly. Before She could answer, he had turned back to Ron and they began discussing the benefits of different styles of brooms.

Before Hermione could say anything, a cloud of owls filled the room. A large black owl flew to Hermione and dropped a thick package in front of her plate. Glancing over at the boys she saw that they hadn't even noticed. She coughed loudly and they turned their heads.

"Where were you last night Hermione?" Ron asked while nosily chewing his breakfast. "We were gonna wait for you to see where you went off to, but Oliver told us that there was practice first thing this morning and so we went to sleep. We knew you'd understand."

It took all of her strength not to scream. Ever since Ron had made the House Team, all they spoke of was quidditch. She thought they were obsessed before hand. She had never been so wrong. On night a few months ago, out of pure desperation for the boys she used to know, she asked if they wanted to explore the grounds. They of course said no with the excuse that they had practice in the morning.

"I was in my room and then went to Professor Snape to ask about my project. Have you forgotten about that already?" She said trying to not sound too annoyed.

"No offense Mione, but you are crazy to want to work with that bastard. He hates you and you hate him. You can only impress the Professors to a point you know." Ron replied calmly while reaching for more food. "What was in the package?"

Glaring, she ripped the paper off of the parcel and threw the paper, not so subtly, at Ron. She let out a squeal and jumped up. It was the books Snape had told her he would let her borrow. Five books she had never read before all for her. If Ron weren't being such a bastard, she would have been ecstatic.

"More books?" The sneer in Ron's voice was obvious. 

At this point even Harry could tell Ron had taken it too far. The anger and pain coming from Hermione was pliable. She quickly backed away from the table and looked like she was about to say something, but instead grabbed her belongings, and began to exit the room. When she reached the door, she turned around and looked at the table. Harry looked like he was dealing with Ron. She sighed and quickly left the room. She didn't notice Snape and Dubledore's eyes following her out. The former curious and the latter worried.

***

The next few hours passed uneventfully. This was mostly due to the fact that she refused to sit next to Ron and thus Harry in any class. She also skipped lunch to get some reading in. Now she had potions though and she was running late. She burst into the classroom and was surprised to see she wasn't late at all. Only a few people were in the room and some were coming in behind her. Feeling a little better about what was definitely going to be the worst part of the day, she sat where she knew the Wonder Boys, as she had taken to calling them in her mind, would never sit. Next to the Slytherins. She still had a fellow Gryffindor on her right, but to her left was a full-fledged Slytherin. She caught the look of surprise she received first from Harry, then from Malfoy, and most surprisingly from Snape. Though his only lasted for a second, she was fairly sure it was there. He quickly recovered and glided to the front of the room.

"Today I have something I need to work on and I can't be bothered with making sure you don't melt down the school." With a sneer he added "no you dunderheads do NOT get to leave. You will study from page 170 to 240 in your textbook. There will be a test next class. What you don't read now is homework."

There was a collective groan. Opening to the first page, Hermione saw that it was a simple duplicating potion and its history. She had studied this on her own months ago and felt no need to re-read it. She closed her textbook and pulled out one of the books Snape had let her borrow. She felt Snape glaring at her and lifted the book up slightly so he could see what she was working on. He sneered from his seat and promptly started attacking a large looking scroll with a quill and ink. The class passed quickly for Hermione and soon she heard Snapes voice cut into her thoughts.

"Put your belongings away and leave my sight. I would advise you to study so that you may pass the test. I do not wish to have any of you fail this class." He paused. "I have no wish to see any of you for another year. Miss Granger, you will stay behind. Wait here." He turned around and walked into his private rooms shutting the door loudly behind him.

She jerked her head up. Surly he couldn't be mad that she had been studying. She heard Ron and Harry not so quietly debating over something and then hurriedly walk over to her.

"Hermione...working with him isn't good." Ron quickly said. "You might get hurt. Harry thinks so too even if he won't say so."

That did it for Hermione. "Ron, you can't just pick and chose when to help me. NOT that I need your help or protection. I can take care of myself perfectly well. I've done it my whole life and you and Harry are not the saviors that you think you are. I am going to go to university whether you like it or not. I am going to do what I want with my life and if it's without your support, so be it. You have been ignoring me for the past two years unless you have the chance to "save" me and I'm sick of it. It's your choice if you want my friendship, but if you decide you want it you had better change you behavior." She took a deep breath and turned to Harry. She lowered her voice a little bit. "This goes for you too Harry. You don't need to prove yourself to me. Maybe to the rest of the world, but I know you. You don't have to save the world to have me on your side."

Ron's eyes were brewing anger and Harry looked like she had smacked him across the face. They both turned around and left the room without a word. By now her brain caught up with her mouth and she realized what she had just said to her best friends.  
  
"Oh gods." She whispered. She staggered to a chair in the front row and sat down with her head in her palms. Her hair had fallen mostly out of the makeshift bun she had made earlier and fell as a shield around her face. Two tears fell and it took all of her might not to allow any others to follow. It was like this that Snape found her.

***

"Miss Granger," He said with a bemused voice. "Surly me asking you to stay behind isn't as horrible as you seem to think it. I didn't give you a detention you know."

He heard a snort come from the girl. "As much as I wish I could say this was your fault sir, it has nothing to do with you. Not everything does you know."

"Ah." He replied. "Thank you for informing me. Now if this display of emotions has nothing to do with me, kindly abandon it until you leave my room. You are of no use to me acting like a first year."

This got him the reaction he had hoped for. She sat up and re-tied her hair back. She was still clearly upset but she was doing her best to pretend this wasn't so.

"What did you ask me to stay after for Professor? I've read the chapter before and I know the-"  
  
"Yes yes. I know. We need to talk about your project. I saw you reading the books a few times today. It's good to see you already so devoted. I need you to tell me one thing before we go any further though Miss Granger."

She sent him a questioning look. "Yes?" She replied clearly annoyed that he would go no further without a reply.

"Why are you so interested in working with me on this project?"

She glaced at him and seeing that he was totally serious, took a deep breath. "I've always been amazed by potions. You have to dedicate your heart to making it if you want it to come out perfectly. And there is no feeling like the one you get when it turns the exact color you wanted. It's so empowering. I guess most wizards and witches are used to that, if you grow up around this stuff I mean, but it is so...for lack of a better word, magical." 

She received a snort from Snape that sounded almost amused. Ignoring it, she spoke again. 

"Being friends with Harry meant one of us was always getting hurt, physically or mentally, and after a while we got sick of going to Madam Pomfrey. The potions she gave us to make us feel better always left us feeling better but that something was wrong. 

"At the end of fith year Harry got really hurt. I had no choice but to bring him to her. She gave him a potion and he was better in a few days but afterwards he told me that his memory of what happened seemed to be different from the one Ron and I had. 

"I asked the Headmaster and Madam Pomfrey about it and they skittered around the subject. So I went into the restricted section and learned that all healing potions, especially strong ones though, have memory altering potions mixed in so that the user doesn't get as traumatized as they naturally would. I just think that's wrong. It means that my memory has been changed. So has Ron's. But imagine Harry's. Even yours Professor. You must have been hurt countless times that needed healing potions." She paused. "I want to create a potion that is just as powerful in the healing aspect but that will not alter the memory."

She couldn't tell by Snape's reaction what he was thinking.

"First off, do not assume anything about me Miss Granger. I am not what anyone imagines. Second, the agents that alter the memory are needed in the potion. They-"

  
"I know that Professor. But from what I've read in some articles, there are substitutes. And maybe I can find another. It can't hurt to try."

"How do you propose to go about testing this Miss Granger?"

"I don't know yet Sir. If I knew everything already, there wouldn't be a point to this project."

He gave her an appraising look. "Good answer Granger. Figure out when you have free time and tomorrow after class we will figure out a schedule."

"Very well. Now may I ask you a question, Professor?" She asked innocently.

"You may ask. Do not expect an answer."

She grinned. "Do you know of any particularly effective curses for shutting up a mirror?"


End file.
